Saka Light Cavalry

Sunday, 26 August 2012

Back to the 6mm French

I know I said no more 6mm for a while but I wanted to try out the Army Painter Blue undercoat with a few tricks and of course the new detail brushes.

So armed with a can of spray and 5 regiments all ready to go, how could I resist? This was a fairly quick job for me. Three sessions all told though one was a long one but as you ma notice from above I added a bit more detail with blanket rolls and straps added rather than painted brown along with the back pack. Simple stages really. Spray blue, give a blue wash and dry brush Vallejo Dark Blue over the uniform. As these guys are lights no need to paint the trousers. Blobs for face and hands then the cross belts in white with the 10/0 brush. Next the black for the Shakos and cartridge box then the red facings. Brown backpack then a mix of blue grey and andrea blue (next time go darker blue) for the bedroll. Ivory white stripes for the backpack straps and the usual musket and bayonet painting. Pom Poms were last up as always before getting a Nut Brown ink wsh and then the usual basing. The torrential rain yesterday is a big part of how I got these finished as no way was I going out!

All five together. These will probably get used on Friday as I have a game with Barry booked and this will be in sunny Spain testing the rules with the changes and smaller forces.

I mixed it up with another two regiments in line but the other three in column. I have also added a few dead French by cutting some of the skirmish figures I have off their bases and removing their muskets for a bit more interest for the bases. I plan to do more of this sort of thing to the bases in future.

OK I will risk a close up shot hoping it does not reveal too many mistakes. The flags are a bit of a pain to get them right but it is worth persevering. I am running out so must get another pack at Partizan.

Another sot from the rear. I hope this is just the way I see them when playing, no routing please, were French. I still have yet to paint up any Guard as I refuse to do these until I have a good supply of more normal units. I can now field about 70+ units per side though I am thinking of selling all the Irregular French at some point s all the foot match up. I will replace the horse for sure as the Irregular are too small. So I am now out of French Infantry to paint, well at least till next Sunday when I pick up a few more which will probably be the last till they get re-sculptured later in the year.

11 comments:

@ Andrew. Common mistake is thinking they are too small. With a good light and average eyes (with or without spcs) you can pick out the detail. 3/0 through 0 brushes will do for most of the painting (I just went down to 10/0 for extra picking) As Peter from Baccus would say "Have you ever tried it?" and it's worth having a go to see how easy it can be.

@ Tamsin, you are right about Baccus and thanks for the praise. I need to buy some Brits so I have have a splash of colour, either that or wait till Barry is not looking and clip a figure or two off his bases.

@ Barry. Yes you are the perfect example given that your smaller scale was 20mm and you paint 6mm well. Looking forward to seeing the new guys Friday.

@ Peter and Curt, thanks, it's a lot of fun painting them. Just spent the afternoon doing the changes to the rules ready for Friday and then making up the armies for the game. It looks to be good but bloody with both sides having some advantages. As we are using about half the number of units as the last game it should be easy to get a result and see how we respond to our advantages.

I am now painting up square markers as in our rules 6mm units can form square rather than "The commander on the ground is assumed to do so" ha more of a feel of 15mm gaming but without the bookkeeping